domingo, 1 de novembro de 2009

The Road Trailer #2

Dimension and the Weinstein brothers will finally open John Hillcoat’s filmed version of Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road on November 25. We’ve seen one trailer already, but that one was out back in May. Now there’s a new trailer just one month before the film opens. Check it out after the break.

This trailer is better. It has less misdirection than the first one. There are still some small flashes of apocalyptic elements that were never seen (or even directly implied) in McCarthy’s original text. And we see Charlize Theron’s character, present only in flashbacks in the novel, edited into the trailer’s timeline in a manner that suggests she’s a more active part of the film than is really the case.

In the first half, this is probably closer to the final film than the first trailer. It is bleak, and seemingly hopeless — the message I get out of the first minute is that the characters are holding out to actually be able to hope for something, rather than really carrying hope alive.

But then the second half comes with the sweeping music, big epic strings and horns laid over dialogue like “You have to keep carrying the fire,” and the movie appears to be a much more uplifiting and sappy movie that it really is.

Selling this movie is tough; it’s grimy and dirty and bleak, and who the hell wants to see that just as fall is about to snap into winter, especially after a year like this one? (I do, actually — I really want to see The Road.) But I’d like to think there are more honest ways to get the true nature of the film across without putting people off.